Halcon sets company IP record with slickwater frack on FBIR
“Up in the Williston Basin we’re literally knocking the ball out of the park,” was how Halcon Resources Chief Executive Officer Floyd Wilson described the Houston-based independents Bakken performance during a presentation at the Barclays CEO Energy Power Conference in New York on Sept. 3.
With a transition to slickwater completions and successful downspacing tests, Wilson said Halcon is now making 2,000 to 4,000 barrel per day wells “on a regular basis” on its Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, FBIR, assets.
In fact, one of those wells, a middle Bakken well on the company’s Blanca South pad in Eagle Nest field in northern Dunn County, recently set a company initial production, IP, record of 4,381 barrels of oil equivalent per day. An adjacent middle Bakken well on a spacing of approximately 660 feet came in with an IP of 3,551 boepd. In comparison, two earlier middle Bakken wells on the same spacing unit that were gel fractured had IPs of 2,675 and 2,174 boepd. Halcon saw similar improvements in wells on its neighboring Blanca North pad.
To the east in the neighboring McGregory Buttes field, two middle Bakken wells on Halcon’s Sneffels North pad recently went on production with IPs of 4,081 and 3,152 boepd in contrast to a middle Bakken well on the spacing unit completed using gels that had an IP of 2,088 boepd. And a recently complete first bench Three Forks well on that same pad had an IP of 2,902 boepd, comparatively better than a gel-completed first bench well on the unit that had an IP of 1,563 boepd. The company is seeing similar results on another of its Sneffels pads where three recently completed middle Bakken wells came in with IPs exceeding 3,000 boepd, nearly three-fold higher than a gel-completed middle Bakken well on the same spacing unit that had an IP of 1,138 boepd.
As Halcon is now in 100 percent multi-well pad drilling mode, Wilson said the company will continue its downspacing development focusing on the middle Bakken and the first bench of the Three Forks. “We’re heading toward eight wells per middle Bakken section, perhaps four for the first bench and second bench of the Three Forks,” he said, adding that, “We’re not doing much in the third and fourth right now, we’re going to let the industry work on that for a while and then see where we stand.”
Slickwater boosts type curve With the transition to slickwater completions, the most current estimated ultimate recovery, EUR, for the company’s FBIR wells is now out of date. That type curve puts the EUR at 801,000 boe for the FBIR wells, up from the company’s previous type curve with an EUR of 576,000 boe (see chart). Now, however, Wilson said that FBIR EUR is closer to 1 million boe. “Here on Fort Berthold Indian Reservation you’ll see this 800,000 barrel type curve is more like a million barrel type curve now with the improvements in frack design that we’ve initiated over the past year or so.”
In addition to its FBIR assets, Halcon has assets and operations in western Williams County, where the same holds true for EURs. Wilson said Halcon is making wells at approximately 500,000 boe each, up from a previous type curve indicating an EUR of 333,000 boe.
Second half outlook Halcon started the year running four rigs in the Williston Basin, and while the company is currently down to three rigs, Wilson said the plan is to increase back to four rigs by the end of the year.
Halcon expects to spud approximately 23 gross operated wells in the basin in the second half of 2014, and further expects to participate in 135 to 140 gross non-operated wells at a working interest of approximately 5 percent.
In addition to the Williston Basin, Halcon has two other key plays, El Halcon in the Eagle Ford in east Texas and the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, TMS, in Mississippi. However, approximately half of the company’s $1.1 billion capital expenditure is earmarked for the Williston Basin, with 40 percent going to El Halcon and 10 percent to TMS.
- Mike Ellerd
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